SGIA Attends EPA Negotiated Rulemaking Committee Meeting

From August 16-17, 2017 SGIA attended a Chemical Data Reporting (CDR) Inorganic Byproducts Meeting Negotiated Rulemaking Committee. The meeting was hosted by the EPA and held at the Agency’s office in Washington, D.C.

In December of 2016, the EPA published a notice in the federal register establishing its intent to establish a negotiated rulemaking committee and negotiate a proposed rule on chemical data reporting under section 8(a) of the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act. To pursue this negotiation, the EPA formed a federal advisory committee composed of interested stakeholders from the EPA, tribes, states, environmental/health/public interest organizations, manufacturing industry associations and companies, and recycling industry associations and companies. The committee began meeting early in 2017 to begin negotiations.

At the August meeting, the committee discussed potential approaches for reporting requirements and identified strengths and concerns for each approach. A total of 6 approaches have been proposed, each offering a different solution to reporting. The most agreed upon approach seemed to be approach A, which simplifies reporting by removing the need to consider exemptions, enabling reporting in categories, and reporting reduced processing and use information, for inorganic byproducts that are recycled, reused, or reprocessed.

The committee did not come to an agreement, however, and has established smaller work groups to discuss different approaches before the next meeting in September. SGIA will continue to monitor this negotiated rulemaking. Sign up to receive the most up-to-date regulatory and legislative information about specialty imaging.